Pros
Large company with some structure, tries to communicate with decentralized workforce. Company invests in equipment such as new trucks, manufacturing equipment, distribution centers. Huge industrial base.
Cons
Top management is living in the good old Bob Kielin days. Out of touch with competitors and sometimes customers. Benefits- Benefits are below industry standard for a company this size. Fastenal has a homegrown workforce and doesn't know or afraid to ask what others are doing to retain employees. Life insurance is barebones with no option to increase. Travel- Travel expenses such as food are not paid for by the company. You are expected to stay in a cheap hotel even if it may be unsafe. You must bunk with a roommate as well to save a few bucks. Nice touch for a 3 billion $ company. Pay- no raises. The only way to get an increase is to change jobs within the company. This results in incompetence throughout the organization not to mention that customers are not happy with the revolving sales people. Bonus- you will be promised a bonus but Mgt is constantly trying to figure how to not pay if you hit the goal as you will be perceived as making too much money. The Christmas bonus is a box of junk food and is a joke within the workforce. Have they ever heard of a gift certificate at a grocery store to actually buy something useful or healthy? To top it off, they send an annual employee report to all employees telling them how great Fastenal is including employee testimonials. Seriously if it was such a great company why would they spend money creating this, sending it out? Retain the current workforce through actions vs lip service and propaganda. Attire- you are responsible to buy your own Fastenal Blue shirts, jackets, etc. They will tell you it's not required to wear Fastenal Blue but good luck with that. They will change direction frequently -3rd CEO in a year. They avoid layoffs-a common tactic is to demote or cut pay to get you to quit.